On February 25, 2021, the California Supreme Court issued an opinion regarding California’s meal period laws. It dramatically changes employers’ obligations in two respects, and reaffirms one key provision. First, if an employer is using a timekeeping system that “rounds” employee time entries for payroll at the beginning and end of the day, employers are…
Employment and business litigation firm Berger, Williams & Reynolds, LLP, originally founded in June 1996, continues to achieve favorable results after 25 years in business. BWR is comprised of partners Harvey Berger, Timothy Williams, and Stephanie Reynolds, Top Employment Lawyers and SuperLawyers. They are supported by associate Ashley Fasano and an excellent support staff. The…
In 2018, Tim Williams took over as lead counsel for the firm in Lee v. Dynamex. Originally filed in 2005, the case included two trips to the Court of Appeal and more recently, the California Supreme Court in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court (2018) 4 Cal.5th 903. Changing the law in California on…
The California Supreme Court recently determined that employees must be paid for tasks they are regularly required to perform for a few minutes before or after their regular work hours. Troester v. Starbucks involved a class action lawsuit against Starbucks by a shift supervisor who was required, after clocking out each day, to send…
An employee claimed he was tricked into accepting job that the employer misrepresented. After being fired, the employee sued the corporation and its two co-founders for fraud, breach of contract, and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing. The employers claimed the employee was at will, and was not owed anything upon…
Following a voter referendum in June 2016, San Diego adopted a city-wide minimum wage higher than the California minimum wage, and a sick leave law more protective than state standards. Changes affect every business and every employee working in San Diego and will impact the city’s economy for years to come.
On December 22, 2016, the California Supreme Court ruled that employers in California must give their employees 10 minutes of work-free rest breaks every four hours or major fraction thereof, and cannot require them to remain on-call and available for duty. In Augustus v. ABM Security Services, Inc. (“ABM”), Augustus and others sued ABM alleging…
In 2015, California lawmakers enacted an expansive set of paid sick leave requirements that will apply to millions of California workers. Paid sick leave is now mandatory for nearly all private employees, and employers are obligated to continue to restore sick leave year after year. Local sick leave laws enacted since 2015 have expanded worker…
